Squash

This is a good way to use that extra pumpkin or squash you may have roasted. It makes an unusually pleasing soup.

This is a nice dish for summer, when zucchini is abundant and the fingerlings are delicate

Instead of making the lemon scaloppine, try this delightful dish from Lidia Bastianich, in which the vegetables almost take center stage and the meat is an accent. It is important in reducing this recipe to one serving to use a small pan so that the sauce does not evaporate.

People often asked me, as I was writing this book, What should I do with chicken breasts? I think they want to cook chicken breasts because they are lean (therefore supposedly good for you) and quick to prepare, but there’s that persistent problem that there are inevitably two to a package, too much for a single meal. Frankly, I see that not as a problem but as an asset, because, again, you have something to play with for a second round. Here is a basic recipe for cooking the chicken so that it is flavorful and not dried out; it can be varied in as many ways as there are vegetables in season. I confess that I prefer dark chicken meat over light; if you feel the same way, just substitute two leg-thigh pieces for the breast meat, and cook about 5 minutes longer.

Our zucchini casserole tastes just as good as Mom’s, but we’ve trimmed out many of the calories. Rich in flavor, this dish is a perfect partner for our Mamaw’s Stuffed Peppers (page 58), Jayne’s Baked Spaghetti (page 62), and Chicken Penne Pasta with Pink Sauce (page 74).

As well as being inexpensive and easy to make, pasta is actually low in fat. It typically tends to be what we combine it with (and how much we consume) that gets us into trouble! But if you are still worried about carbohydrates, you can always opt for low-carb or whole wheat pasta. Instead of substituting the pasta, we avoided calorie pitfalls by adding lots of zucchini and using naturally lower fat cheeses, such as feta. The addition of hot Italian turkey sausage and red pepper flakes adds just the right amount of heat to keep your taste buds happy. Pair this dish with your favorite salad to make a quick and satisfying meal any night of the week.

This is my idea of fall and winter all wrapped up in a pudding dish! I take basic custard and ratchet it up by adding pumpkin and maple syrup. Then to keep it super-sexy, I use challah, which is a rich, buttery, and slightly sweet bread. This isn’t your ordinary, everyday, bread pudding; this bread pudding is more like cake—and I like cake!

I’m a fan of anything called hash. When I was a kid my parents would make fried eggs for breakfast and bust out a can of corned beef hash—it was a huge treat. Now I jump at anything that reminds me of hash. In this recipe I mix together sweet potatoes, apple, onion, and, of course, a bit of bacon for my own take on hash—a bit sweeter and certainly healthier than anything from a can!

This dish reminds me of summertime as a kid. Growing up we had a vegetable garden and we always grew zucchini—one of those veggies that if you grow some, you get a ton. So my mom was constantly coming up with different ways to use all the zucchini we had hanging around—we had stuffed zucchini, grilled zucchini, zucchini bread, you name it. (I took more zucchini bread to my teachers at school than you can imagine!) This preparation of stewed zucchini was one my favorites. Zucchini with tomatoes and cheese . . . HELLO? What’s not to love???

Fish in paper is a classic preparation that will totally make you feel like a rock star in the kitchen. It’s super-easy and it’s all about the presentation. All you have to do is toss some veggies and white fish in a parchment package along with some wine, and let them steam themselves. When your guests open their packages, they get a big burst of aromatic vapor and a lovely piece of gently cooked fish on perfectly cooked veggies. Just remember that because you seal the packages, you only get one shot to season everything—if you miss your opportunity then this will taste like a diet dish. You have to season well BEFORE you seal the deal.

This is an amazing dish because it takes everyday ingredients and joins them in a delicious and unexpected collaboration. Both the squash and the broccoli rabe have their own strong personalities—one sweet and one bitter—and each brings something to the party that would be sorely missed if one of them didn’t show up. Combined with the nutty, earthy flavor of the whole wheat pasta, this is what I call a real team effort.

I first encountered this sauce while working in Umbria, and it’s one of my favorite summertime pastas. To me, this is Mother Nature’s last blast, her crescendo before fall. This is where you take everything she has to give, all those glorious summer ingredients, and toss them together to let the wonderful flavors marry. Then you just barely heat everything up, never actually letting the veggies cook, so they maintain their fresh flavors. Punctuate this with a salty grate of ricotta salata and say, “Mmmmm . . .”

I love this soup because it’s my favorite color and the garnishes bump up the fancy factor! It’s also totally seasonal—what could be more autumnal than a pretty pumpkin soup with spiced whipped cream and crispy leeks?

My mom is a florist so I love flowers—especially big orange ones like zucchini blossoms! I make zucchini blossoms stuffed full of creamy ricotta cheese and then fry them until they’re golden and crispy. In my opinion, zucchini blossoms are nature’s perfect little packages. What’s better than a crispy, crunchy, cheesy flower? A crispy, crunchy, cheesy flower on a bread salad—a gorgeous mix of perfectly ripe tomatoes, basil, cucumber, red onion, and bread, which softens when it absorbs all the veggies’ wonderful juices.

Everybody likes fried food (if you say you don’t, you’re lying!), and these little guys are fried food done beautifully: a ton of zucchini held together by just a little bit of batter. They’re the perfect combination of salty, crispy, cheesy, and spicy all rolled into one. And, they’re a cinch to make: Do all your mise en place ahead of time; then you can make the sauce and the batter at the same time. Once you’re prepped, fry these babies until they’re really dark and crunchy. What we want here is crispy, crunchy, and dark. Woo-hoo!

Making your own tomato-based sauce to dip your cheese straws into or to spread on your pizza is super-easy. At the bakery, we usually toss something together with whatever spare veggies and tidbits we have lying around. The foundation, however, goes a little something like this.

So you went and invited everyone over for brunch one fateful Sunday morning. Sunday! The day you ordinarily sleep until eleven, don’t bother to wash your hair or change out of your pajamas, and end up watching TV upside down on the couch with newspapers and gossip mags strewn all over the floor. Tsk-tsk—it doesn’t sound to me like you’re quite ready for that hostess habit you picked up somewhere along the way. And yet here we are! Thank God there is this brunch-ready recipe you can prep the night before without even the most obnoxious of your foodie friends being any the wiser. Just get your dough and vegetables all set up and let them chill in the refrigerator overnight. Come morning, simply follow the quick baking instructions. If sweet potatoes sound too mushy for you, swap them out for 3/4 cup sautéed mushrooms.

Cooking spaghetti squash in the microwave steams the squash and the strands come out nicely—unlike cooking it in a conventional oven, which can cause the strands to bake to the skin. A simple quick fresh pesto is a snappy sauce for the steamed squash.

Toasted pecans and browned butter give these delicate crepes a deep nuttiness. Delicata are small squash and I usually plan on one per person plus one extra when I serve them. This is a nice dish for dinner parties because the components can be made ahead of time and assembled right before dinner.

Jack-o’-lanterns are wonderful. When else does a vegetable get to have so much fun? Serve this roasted pumpkin with the lights down dim and tell the spooky story of Stingy Jack tricking the devil once you get home from trick-or-treating.